The Piazza

"Crom, count the dead." Discuss the Conan campaign setting (based on the Hyborian Age Conan the Barbarian, created by Robert E. Howard) as it relates to pen & paper RPGs, here.
The Book-House: Find Conan products.

If you are looking for an easy to learn and play Sword & Sorcery RPG «Barbarians of Lemuria» has all the trappings to run Conan style adventures. The cover is very iconic.

In a nutshell :

Characters are creating by choosing 4 careers. They represent your character's Life Path up to the beginning of the adventure.
These careers automatically grant you expertise in their field. There is no skill list. There are 24 careers. From Alchemist to Worker. Dancer, Mariner, Torturer to name a few.
The region of origine is the second thing selected. Each region grants Boons (roll 3d6 drop lowest) and Flaws (roll 3d6 drop highest) !

- Characters start each game with 5 Hero Points. For each Boon selected that number decreases by 1. Hero Points lets the player supply a bit of the narrative (nothing major), roll again, turn a success into Mighty Success, turn a Mighty Success in a Legendary Success, Defy Death or Shake off Wounds. (and there is a Calamitous Failure of course!).

- Arcana Points are used by Magicians.
- Lifeblood are the HPs.
- Actions are resolved using 2d6+Attribute VS Action difficulty.
- Advancement Points (XPs) are can be used to better : Attributes, Combat abilities, Careers, Buy offs flaws, Buy a new Boon.

A complete game and setting in 104 pages! Includes a Gazetter of 20 pages and 3 two-page mini-adventures to start your Saga. It also comes with sample characters, NPCs, alternate races and a bestiary.
There writing is clean and straight forward.

I haven't played it yet but I must say its refreshing and fun to read.

It's a good game, although note that some careers are not appropriate for an Hyborian Age setting.
As for "easy" however there are even simpler (and IMO even more effective) S&S games out there, just to name one "On Mighty Thews". I'll post later some details.

rabindranath72 wrote:It's a good game, although note that some careers are not appropriate for an Hyborian Age setting.
As for "easy" however there are even simpler (and IMO even more effective) S&S games out there, just to name one "On Mighty Thews". I'll post later some details.

Thanks for reference!

I read on it and its not the type of game my group wants to play. They are firmly set in their classic RPG ways.
They like to sit down and enjoy the ride. Too many narrativist questions and their minds phase out.

A while back, I switched my one-player game (my wife) from d20 Mongoose Conan to Barbarians of Lemuria.

I also ran a 5 session mini-campaign for my wife and two of our friends. It was a Hyborian Age game using Barbarians of Lemuria. One of the guys really liked BoL, while the other guy did not. (He is an avid Savage Worlds player). After the 5 sessions, I told him he could run several sessions for us using Savage Worlds - Beasts and Barbarians.

I just got the Mythic Edition in hardback (to go along with my PDF) and have been switching over our one player game. So far so good.

Big Mac wrote:Does Barbarians of Lemuria have its own campaign setting or is it just a rules system?

Lemuria is the default setting. It's more of a barebones setting than something fully fledged out. Quite in the spirit of the pulp tales of the 30s, where the setting is completely functional to the characters.

Big Mac wrote:Does Barbarians of Lemuria have its own campaign setting or is it just a rules system?

Lemuria is the default setting. It's more of a barebones setting than something fully fledged out. Quite in the spirit of the pulp tales of the 30s, where the setting is completely functional to the characters.

So the 20 page gazetteer that Shesheyan mentioned is the campaign setting?

Is there a map of Lemuria? Could it be used as another part of Conan's world?

Big Mac wrote:Does Barbarians of Lemuria have its own campaign setting or is it just a rules system?

Lemuria is the default setting. It's more of a barebones setting than something fully fledged out. Quite in the spirit of the pulp tales of the 30s, where the setting is completely functional to the characters.

So the 20 page gazetteer that Shesheyan mentioned is the campaign setting?

Is there a map of Lemuria? Could it be used as another part of Conan's world?

Yes, that's the campaign setting, based on Lin Carter's "Thongor" yarns (mostly a rip-off of Conan, really.)
There's a map of the setting, at least in the Legendary Edition. I haven't seen the new version of the book though.
I suppose it could be used as another land of antediluvian Earth, although note that Lemuria pre-dates the Hyborian Age continent, and explicitly doesn't exist anymore according to Howard's "Hyborian Age" essay (descendants of the Lemurians still exist in the Hyborian Age as other races/cultures.)
But honestly, the Hyborian Age lands are so varied that I can't really see the need to add even more stuff (and besides, as written in BoL, Lemuria is already a quite clear rip-off of the Hyborian Age.)

Big Mac wrote:Does Barbarians of Lemuria have its own campaign setting or is it just a rules system?

Lemuria is the default setting. It's more of a barebones setting than something fully fledged out. Quite in the spirit of the pulp tales of the 30s, where the setting is completely functional to the characters.

So the 20 page gazetteer that Shesheyan mentioned is the campaign setting?

Is there a map of Lemuria? Could it be used as another part of Conan's world?

rabindranath72 wrote:There's a map of the setting, at least in the Legendary Edition. I haven't seen the new version of the book though.

Thanks.

rabindranath72 wrote:I suppose it could be used as another land of antediluvian Earth, although note that Lemuria pre-dates the Hyborian Age continent, and explicitly doesn't exist anymore according to Howard's "Hyborian Age" essay (descendants of the Lemurians still exist in the Hyborian Age as other races/cultures.)
But honestly, the Hyborian Age lands are so varied that I can't really see the need to add even more stuff (and besides, as written in BoL, Lemuria is already a quite clear rip-off of the Hyborian Age.)

I suppose that the map/setting might also work for someone who wants to run a Conan game that has a Planescape or Spelljammer sidetrek.

Big Mac wrote:
I suppose that the map/setting might also work for someone who wants to run a Conan game that has a Planescape or Spelljammer sidetrek.

If...you...really...must...(but know that Crom is NOT happy!)

I guess that the Contact Home Power spell would not allow my PC to gain spells from Crom then.

He wouldn't care anyway. As Conan says:

Queen of the Black Coast wrote:"Their chief is Crom. He dwells on a great mountain. What use to call on him? Little he cares if men live or die. Better to be silent than to call his attention to you; he will send you dooms, not fortune! He is grim and loveless, but at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man's soul. What else shall men ask of the gods?"

One of my friends wants to start a new campaign in his homebrew setting and he has decided he wants to use Barbarians of Lemuria this time around. I've played a bit with this system with another GM, and I am super excited to get back into it. This setting is a bit more gritty than you standard BoL world, but I hope we can marry the system with an atmosphere that is closer to Game of Thrones than Conan.

Havard wrote:One of my friends wants to start a new campaign in his homebrew setting and he has decided he wants to use Barbarians of Lemuria this time around. I've played a bit with this system with another GM, and I am super excited to get back into it. This setting is a bit more gritty than you standard BoL world, but I hope we can marry the system with an atmosphere that is closer to Game of Thrones than Conan.

-Havard

Great! If you want to go GoT the choice of character careers will be important. Less fighting and more nobles.

My group is scheduled to do a mini-campaign in May. No idea yet what the GM is planning.